chips

In case the chips war did not have enough contestants, a new company has joined the race: Spacex

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Spacex does everything big. Last year he opened in Bastrop, a small town in Texas (USA), The manufacturing plant of largest printed circuit plates in the country. The company of the company led by Elon Musk consists in producing all components, or, at least, most of them, involved in the manufacture of their satellites For the Starlink Network. This strategy will allow Spacex to save costs and reduce its dependence on the distribution chain. However, this is just the beginning of the path you will travel. And is that, according to Digitimes Asiathis company plans to expand its Bastrop facilities with the purpose of tuning the equipment you need to package semiconductors. Before moving forward we are interested in reviewing what the two concepts are in which we have just inquired. A printed circuit plate or PCB for its English denomination (Printed Circuit Board) It is a sheet manufactured in an insulating material, such as fiberglass, which contains on its surface the copper tracks through which electricity will circulate in an integrated circuit or electronic component. On the other hand, Chips packaging It is the process that seeks to protect the integrated circuit by introducing it into an encapsulated or protective housing. In addition, it incorporates the necessary connections to install it into a printed circuit plate and allow it to communicate with other electronic components. Spacex’s irruption in the integrated circuit industry is underway The administration led by Donald Trump has proposed to develop the semiconductor industry as much as necessary for the US to not depend on any other country. Currently this nation Buy 92% from its avant -garde semiconductors to TSMC in Taiwan. And the US government intends to manufacture 28% of avant -garde chips of the planet in 2032 considering as advanced integrated circuits those produced with a more sophisticated integration technology than that of 10 Nm. Currently the chips that Spacex uses are packaged by stmicroelectronics and innolux The steps that Spacex is taking support the strategy that the US government is deploying, but, as I mentioned a few lines above, first of all they pursue save costs and minimize its current dependence on the distribution chain. At the moment Most of the chips That this company from Elon Musk uses in the manufacture of its satellites are packaged by the Franco-Cabalian company Stmicroelectronics and the Taiwanese innolux. Presumably when the expansion of the Bastrop Plant is a list of the packaging will be commissioned by Spacex itself. From that moment on, this company will manufacture its own PCB and package its integrated circuits, so its next logical movement will be in all likelihood to build a semiconductor manufacturing plant. The SpaceX satellite network currently brings together about 7,700 devices in orbit, and this company intends to launch over the next few years 32,000 more satellites with the purpose of giving coverage to the entire planet. In addition, some of these satellites are used by the US government, so controlling the entire production chain of these devices will allow Spacex to optimize the performance of their business and guarantee the safety and integrity of its satellite network. More information | Digitimes Asia In Xataka | China has the CPU ARM for faster servers on the planet. It is from Alibaba and its performance is supported by IEEE

The biggest Chinese chips is about to start production at 5 Nm. Your plan is to have the 3 Nm in 2026

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TO SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp), The largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer has cost it more than two years to refine its most advanced integration technology what is necessary to produce integrated 5 Nm circuits. And he has not just traveled this path. Huawei has traveled it from the hand of Huawei. Dr. Kim, an expert in chips manufacturing who has worked in Samsung and currently investigating TSMC in the US, He maintains that SMIC It is about to start the production of 5 Nm chips. It is perfectly credible because, as we have just seen, we know with certainty that this company has been Working in this technology. And, in addition, Dr. Kim is a reliable source. However, this expert has pointed out something crucial that we should not overlook: the performance per wafer that SMIC has currently achieved in its 5 Nm nodes is less than 30%. When semiconductor manufacturers produce a chip wafer, some of those nuclei do not work properly. It is normal. And when they launch a new lithographic node, their performance by wafer usually has a wide margin, but little by little, as engineers refine their integration processes, this parameter improves. A mature lithography can deliver to integrated circuit manufacturers a very high performance, but an incipient technology usually moves in the orbit of 50% performance, so only half of the chips produced work correctly. SMIC 3 and 5 nm chips are possible thanks to the SAQP technique The problem is that for an integration technology to be profitable from an economic point of view, its performance by wafer has to be At least 70%. And, as we have just seen, Dr. Kim argues that the SMIC 5 NM node is below 30%. It is objectively a very poor performance, but we know what this low figure explains: the technique used by this manufacturer to produce these semiconductors. It is known as Multiple patterningand SMIC has used it for more than a year and a half to make 7 NM chips for Huawei and other customers. The 5 Nm chips that SMIC will manufacture for Huawei are possible thanks to a technology known as SAQP This strategy consists in transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It works, but is responsible for wafer performance is clearly improvable. However, in all probability the integrated 5 Nm circuits that presumably SMIC will manufacture soon for Huawei are possible Thanks to a technology known as SAQP (Self-alledhed Quadruple Patterning), which is nothing more than a Multiple patterning more aggressive and sophisticated than the one used to manufacture the soc Kirin 9000s of 7 nm and other chips. A report published two days ago by the Taiwanese media Economic Daily News ensures that SMIC will start the manufacture of 3 Nm semiconductors equipped with GAA transistors (Gate-alall-around) For Huawei in 2026. However, this is not all. This article also maintains that this last company has already completed laboratory tests that pursue the manufacture of integrated circuits using carbon nanotubes. Huawei’s plan presumably is to give this innovation to SMIC to adapt it to large -scale production. The enormous effort that Huawei, SMIC and other Chinese companies involved in the design and manufacture of semiconductors are the result of their inability to access the equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) produced by the Dutch company Asml Because of US sanctions. With these SMIC machines could make 3 and 5 nm chips delivering a performance by wafer similar to that they have achieved TSMC or Samsung. However, the need to produce these integrated circuits using deep ultraviolet equipment (UVP) of ASML, which are less sophisticated, forces them to resort to the SAQP technique. It works, as we have seen, but these companies lose a lot of competitiveness due to the poor performance by wafer and the high cost that this technology entails. More information | Economic Daily News In Xataka | The US has declared the total war on Huawei: he does not want him to sell his chips for the most advanced outside of China

These are the chips that are capable of manufacturing without resorting to the most advanced Machine of ASML

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TSMC is not the largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet by chance. Morris Chang He founded this veteran Taiwanese company in 1987, but his leadership took several years to consolidate. At that time the most important integrated circuit manufacturer was Intel, but The TSMC domain In this industry during the last two decades it is irrefatable. Today monopolizes approximately 60% of the market of the manufacture of integrated circuits, and nothing indicates that in the short term Intel or Samsung, its two main competitors, will be able to dispute your leadership. The success of this company has mainly based on its ability to manufacture large -scale chips using the most advanced integration technologies available and with a very high wafer performance. Here lies its very high competitiveness. And, in addition, he has managed to preserve this position for many years, which has helped him transmit confidence to his solid clients such as a rock. His economic performance is nothing other than a consequence of his career: in 2024 he entered 34% more than in 2023. TSMC claims to be able to bring asml UVE lithography equipment to the limit This integrated circuit manufacturer has confirmed that the tests of its 2 Nm node are being successful, so you can start the large -scale manufacture of semiconductors using this photolithography during the second semester of 2025. However, its medium -term plans do not end here. And is that at the end of last April advance During his North American Technological Conference that is also testing his next avant -garde integration technology. It will call it A14 (1.4 Nm), will enter large -scale production in 2028 and we already know some of its most interesting characteristics. Kevin Zhang ensures that TSMC does not need the ASML UVE High-Nna lithography team to make 1.4 Nm One of its most important spots will consist that you will use transistors Nanosheet Gaa (Gate-alall-around) Second generation. The first generation will arrive next to the Lithography N2 (2 Nm) this year. In addition, this integration technology will land with the promise to make possible the manufacture of integrated circuits with higher performance, higher energy efficiency and a more flexible design. The usual. However, TSMC, fortunately, has been wet and in its event some figures made public that allow us to assess to what extent the arrival of the A14 node will be important. And, according to this company, the integrated circuits produced with the A14 lithography will be 15% faster than the chips manufactured in the NEN N2 with the same consumption; They will reduce energy expenditure by 30% at the same speed, and, in addition, they will put on the table the possibility of increasing the density of logic by 20%. According to Kevin ZhangSenior Vice President and Deputy Director of Operations of TSMC, the A14 node will be attractive to make chips for consumption devices and for strictly professional applications, such as, for example, GPU for artificial intelligence (AI). There is no doubt that TSMC’s promises about their lithography A14 sound good, but there is more that we should not overlook. Zhang says that they will not use the equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) and haute opening (High-na) that manufactures the Dutch company ASML in this node. This is a technical capacity exhibition. These machines, the most advanced that currently exist, are suitable for producing integrated circuits of 2 nm and beyond. In fact, The lithography 14a (1.4 Nm) It will be the first in which Intel will use the Uve High opening equipment of ASML. However, as we have just seen, TSMC says it can produce chips capable of dealing with comparable semiconductors of Intel and Samsung using conventional UVE equipment. 2025 will be the year in which the lithographs of 2 nm will start, and, therefore, it will be the prelude to a presumably even more bloody battle: that of the 1.4 Nm. Image | ASML More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | ASML’s new lithography team divides chips manufacturers. TSMC considers not using it until 2030

In his obsession to torpedo the Chinese chips industry, the US wants to block an essential to manufacture them: the software, according to FT

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Hard setback for the Trump administration, which dawns this Thursday, May 29 with a clear response from the US International Trade Court to its tariff policy. The organism has declared generalized tariffs illegalafter considering that “they exceed any authority conferred on the president by the IEEPA (Law on Economic Powers in case of international emergency) “. In the middle of the storm, sources of Financial Times They declare that the United States Department of Commerce has begun to urge the main suppliers of electronic design automation software (EDA), in a new attempt to continue trying to knock each of the pillars that sustains the Chinese semiconductor industry. The new order. The Trump administration is starting to inform To the main national companies that offer the necessary software to design semiconductors that they must stop selling their services to Chinese groups. A measure that strengths the commercial war between the United States and China, at a time when the latter country is in full chips national production record and getting closer to develop their own 5 Nm lithography. The big names. There are three big names playing in the American industry: Cadence, Synopsy and Siemens. These three companies They monopolize the bulk of the Global EDA software market And they have been key for China to have been able to develop its current semiconductor industry. Preventing China from accessing this type of solutions is a zancadilla. These tools are essential to achieve advanced lithographic processes and expedite essentials such as design verification, performance simulation, energy consumption, and other key aspects to lead in the manufacture of any chip. Why is EDA software. In the manufacture of a modern semiconductor, tools that make it possible to automate the essential design and verification processes for its manufacture are necessary. Minimizing the margin of error and being especially effective in the refining of your behavior is key to leading this career. EDA software is a fundamental element to ensure that these designs meet the expectations of the manufacturing process, and allows to automate each of the phases of the same. The local industry. SMICthe spearhead in the Chinese semiconductor industry, It has been using Synopsys design suites For more than 20 years. After entering the Entity Listthe company did not lose access to these toolsonly access to them was difficult to be forced to establish license agreements to be able to use them. If Trump’s order is fulfilled, it will not be possible to renew these agreements or access to the software of these companies. Immediately after the intentions of the US administration, local companies such as Empyrean Technology, Primarius Techonologies and Semitonix, have seen the price of the action around 20%. These companies are specialized in the development of software solutions for semiconductors, and are some of the main names that sound after Trump’s threat. Even in the air. Although sources consulted by Financial Times affirm that the United States Industry and Security Office (BIS) is issuing this new directive through letters to companies, some like Synopsys have not taken long to uncheck. “We are aware of the rumors and speculation, but Synopsys has not received any official communication from the Bis. That is why we keep our annual forecasts unchanged, based on our current understanding of the export restrictions of the BIS and in the forecast of an interannual fall of the income from China.” Cadence and Siemens, for the moment, have not made statements about it. In Xataka | China prepares the mate to the US: it will have its own UVE lithography team to make chips in 2025

Japan’s commitment to lead the chips industry is held on these three companies

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For Japan, as for South Korea, Taiwan, China or the US, the semiconductor industry has a strategic character not only because of the deep beneficial impact it has on its economy, but also by the impulse that gives its technological capacity. This is the context in which the Japanese government announced in the middle of last November A public plan that will injected into companies that are dedicated to the design and manufacture of chips no less than 325,000 million dollars within ten years. In addition, it prepares additional 65,000 million that seek to support the activity of local companies. There is no doubt that it is a very strong and more ambitious bet even than those designed by the US, China or Europe. Only South Korea prepare an economic investment of a similar size. The first reactions of Japanese companies have not been waiting. “We are working with our clients to develop technologies that teach four generations in the future.” These words of Nobuto DoiVice President of Tokyo Electron, are a declaration of intentions. However, before moving forward in this article it is important that we briefly review where Japan comes from. At the end of the 80s this Asian country dominated the global industry of the integrated circuits with an indisputable forcefulness. Nec, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Matsushita and other Japanese companies They monopolized in 1988 Nothing less than 50% of the chips industry. However, today none of these companies is positioned among the leaders of a sector dominated with iron fist by Taiwanese, American, Chinese, South Korean and German companies. Tokyo Electron: Japanese Asml This company is one of The pillars of the Japanese industry of integrated circuits. It is dedicated to the design and manufacture of lithography and waking -up equipment, so its machines often live together in the TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron Technology or SK Hynix plants, among other companies, with the teams of the Dutch company ASML or the American Apply materials. Its importance for Japan is such that it is currently one of the Japanese companies that are being backed by subsidies approved by the Japanese government. The new Tokyo Electron plant in Oshu will be intended for the manufacture of advanced team deposition equipment and logistics In fact, it is building several buildings in the prefecture of Miyagi that will presumably be completed in 2025. The most ambitious project that will address in these facilities will consist of the design and manufacture of some some WAFSMA TEACHING BY PLASMA Very advanced. They are precisely the machines that Nobuto Doi speaks in the statement that I have included in the second paragraph of this article. These equipment are involved in the definition of the pattern that will later be transferred to the wafer. The Japanese company Hitachi also has plasma wafering engraving machines, but the singing voice in this particular market has tokyo electron. Apparently the engineers of this last company are working side by side with their clients to develop solutions that, according to doi, four generations ahead will be positioned. However, its plan goes beyond the facilities of the Prefecture of Miyagi. And it is that Tokyo Electron is also building a new plant in Oshu, in the prefecture of Iwate, which will be intended for the manufacture of advanced wafering deposition equipment and logistics. We can be sure: Tokyo Electron is the Japanese Asml. Without it, the ambitious plan pergeted by the Japanese government for its semiconductor industry would not be viable. Rapidus Corporation: The spearhead of Japan The company that is destined to compete from you to you with TSMC, Intel or Samsung in the chip production market is Rapidus corporation. In fact, it has been expressly created to replace Japan at the forefront of integrated circuits. This is a very young company. It was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting, Sony, Toyota, Nec, Softbank, Kioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and Mufg Bank. The initial capital invested in the constitution of this company is not very bulky, but there is no doubt that the companies that participate in it have an indisputable relevance in the sectors of technology, automotive and telecommunications. Rapidus is currently putting a circuit manufacturing plant integrated in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), in which it plans to produce 2 Nm semiconductor. The first prototypes of these chips are already readybut large -scale manufacturing will not arrive at best until 2027. Rapidus is making a chip manufacturing plant in northern Japan in which it plans to produce 2 Nm semiconductors What is causing the new Rapidus factory to monopolize the looks of the semiconductor sector is that, according to Atsuyoshi Koike, which is the president of the company, it will be completely automated. Its purpose is to resort to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to tune an automated production line that will be specialized in the manufacture of 2 nm chips for AI applications. Its plan consists, in short, to produce integrated circuits faster, with a lower and more quality cost. To manufacture these semiconductors, equipment of extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE) produced by the Dutch company ASML, and practically all manufacturing processes are automatic. However, the tests of test and validation, interconnection and packaging of the chips are still largely carried out manually in most manufacturing plants. According to Rapidus, its automation technology of all these processes will allow you to reduce the delivery time of your chips by 66% compared to the times they usually offer TSMC and Samsung. JSR Corporation: The photor resistance monopoly is in his hands There is a Japanese company that is indisputably leader in its specialty. It is little known outside the scope of the semiconductors, and yet it is one of the bastions of Japan. Is called JSR Corporation and specialized in the production of photorers. The photolithography equipment designing and produces ASML … Read more

The US wants to end the chips for the Chinese that are sold abroad. And China knows how to defend oneself

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The US Department of Commerce gave in the middle of this May A very important step forward in His offensive against Huawei’s business outside China. During the last weeks this Chinese company has presented two chips for artificial intelligence (AI), the Ascend 910d and the Ascend 920with which he seeks to occupy the holes in the Chinese market that will presumably leave Nvidia as a result of the latest sanctions to China deployed by the US. The American company led by Jensen Huang can no longer deliver to its Chinese clients Your H20 GPUand, precisely, Huawei aspires to get that market portion with its new chip ascend 920. The other GPU, the Ascend 910D chip, presumably delivers a performance comparable to that of the GPU NVIDIA H100so it aspires to consolidate as a solid alternative to the latter. The US cannot control the presence of Huawei in China, but has taken a very important step forward to cut off its presence outside its country of origin. The US is determined to prevent the sale of chips for Chinese outside China Frequently some readers ask us why the US has the power to prevent Asml, which is a company of the Netherlands, to sell its most advanced lithography teams to its Chinese clients. This right lies on a fundamental principle: the most advanced machines produced by ASML, such as its equipment of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) or deep ultraviolet (UVP) use US technologies. One of the most important is the innovation that allows these machines to generate ultraviolet radiation with adequate wavelength. If the US applies this regulation, China will activate its anti -senses law This is in essence the same principle that the US Department of Commerce has appealed to approve a resolution by which no country on the planet can buy the GPUs for the Ascend de Huawei. According to this American institution this Chinese company has produced these chips illegally using US technologiesso its export outside the borders of the country governed by Xi Jinping violates the export controls of the Department of Commerce. However, this is not all. And it is that last week the US government announced that this prohibition has acquired a global character, so it is no longer limited to the GPUs for Ia that produces Huawei, but affects all chips for the developed by Chinese companies. As expected, the Beijing Government He has taken it as an aggression. And has responded to the US with less moderation than on other occasions. His first measure has consisted of announcing that if the US applies this regulation, China will activate its anti -senses law. According to Xin QiangProfessor of the Institute of International Studies of the Fudan University, in Shanghai, “China’s countermeasures against this new chips restriction will impact US technology companies with large businesses in China (…) These technology companies They have a great influence in Washington“There is no doubt that the administration led by Xi Jinping has the ability to respond to its American counterpart. In fact, Qiang holds that “Beijing is essentially following US movements: you scales, I scall; you reduce, I reduce.” And we cannot ignore that China still has a margin to press the US and its allies hardening its export controls of critical minerals. Image | Moore Threads More information | SCMP In Xataka | In a low voice, China has begun to remove some tariffs from US products. Your concern: the chips

The US opted to veto the advanced chips of AI in China. The shot has come absolutely for the cylinder head

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In September 2022 the United States intensified its commercial war with China with a singular measure: prohibited export of advanced chips from AI to the Asian giant. That decision was aimed at protecting the innovation capacity of the United States and incidentally Zancadilla to China. Or try, because the truth is that the play has been a real pifia. Nvidia is suffering the consequences. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, gave a talk in Computex in which critical strongly that measure and all that followed it. “Four years ago, Nvidia had 95% market share in China. Today is only 50%. The rest is Chinese technology. They have a lot of local technology they would use if they did not have Nvidia.” The veto has caused the opposite effect. Huang continued to say that those measures They have caused just the opposite that was intended. Instead of leaving China back in the field of technological innovation, they have awakened it. “Export controls have provided them with the spirit (to innovate), and government support has accelerated its development. Our competition is intense in China. “ The H20 chip has been a ruin for Nvidia. The last of the examples of this disaster we have In the H20 chipa “trimmed” and less capable version of its most advanced chips that was developed precisely for the Chinese market. Although During all 2024 Nvidia was allowed to export that chip to China, in April the US government prohibited these sales. That caused some losses of 5.5 billion dollars In Nvidia, a hard blow from which they now try to recover with A new version that Not even It will be based on Hopper architecture. USA should back. For Huang, the strategy is the wrong one: “If the US wants to stay ahead, we need to maximize and accelerate the diffusion (of our technology), not limit it.” The Government prepares the review of the “AI DIFFUSION RULE” issued by Biden in January 2025. This regulation further restricted exports to China of Hardware and AI software. CUDA, also threatened. The hardware is no longer the problem, but there is an important one with CUDA, the NVIDIA ecosystem that is absolute reference for solutions of IA software solutions. Huawei has an alternative called Cann, but there are several Western companies that also want to get rid of the domain of CUDA. Among them are Intel, Openai and of course, AMD, that in fact It has technically higher chips to those of Nvidia but that actually behave worse for having lower software. But China goes to yours. The striking thing about all this is that the US strategy has caused a spectacular effect in China, where the development of “very socialist” models It is now overwhelming – Deepseek R1 is the clear example. But they are also making surprising chips Like Huawei’s Ascend 910ccomparable to the almost mythical Nvidia H100. The thing does not end there: they are already preparing the deployment of The new ascend 910dwhich is supposed to even go further. Image | Nvidia | Dominic Kurniawan In Xataka | There is a great threat to the US if you send thousands of advanced chips from AI to the Middle East. That end in China

Japan cannot afford your most valuable company in the chips industry. And is mired in debts

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JSR Corporation is a company extraordinarily valuable for Japanalthough not in a strictly economic sense. And this company constitutes with Tokyo Electron, RapidusCanon and Nikon The spearhead of the Japanese chips industry. Japan needs them. It necessarily needs these companies to be competitive if you want to recover the relevance that it had decades ago in the already flourishing semiconductor industry. At the end of the 80s Japan dominated the integrated circuit industry With an overwhelming forcefulness. Nec, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Matsushita and other Japanese companies monopolized in 1988 no less than 50% of the chip industry. However, today none of these companies is positioned among the leaders of a sector dominated with iron fist by Taiwanese, American, Dutch, South Korean and German companies. Despite its world leadership JSR Corporation is spending trouble This company has something that the other companies that I have mentioned in the first paragraph of this article lack: it holds the monopoly of a crucial sector of the chips industry. This is actually what makes it so valuable to Japan beyond its economic results. And it is that JSR specializes in the production of photorers. Photolithography teams that Design and produce ASML They are responsible, very broadly, to transfer the geometric pattern described by the mask with a lot of precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. In this area we can observe the pattern as the “drawing” that delimits the distribution of transistors, connections and other elements that make up an integrated circuit. However, before reaching this important step it is necessary A process known as deposition. Equipment manufactured by Tokyo Electron either Apply materials. Its purpose is to prepare silicon wafers for the transfer of the geometric pattern by depositing a fine material of material on them. During the last two decades all companies specialized in the production of photorestoning materials have been Japanese Depending on the type of chip that is being manufactured it will be necessary to use one material or another. One of the most used deposition techniques is known as oxidation, and consists of taking advantage of the silicon’s ability to form a fine oxide layer when reacting with water. Its purpose is to protect transistors and other components of external pollution chips. However, before carrying out the transfer of the geometric pattern to the wafer using a lithography equipment it is necessary to pour a liquid capable of absorbing the light and preserving the pattern. This is the function of the photorersista fluid. During the last two decades all companies specialized in the production of photorers have been Japanese. In fact, Japan since then has the monopoly of this market, which It is currently led by JSR Corporation. This company supplies its photorestoning liquids to most semiconductor manufacturers with which we are familiar, such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron Technology or Texas Instruments, among many others. The surprising thing is that despite the domain it exerts on the market of photorers, JSR is not going well. In 2024 the investment company Japan Investment Corp. bought it for 6,000 million dollars with the purpose of consolidating its growth, but has closed the last fiscal year in March 2025 with losses of 1,450 million dollars. This bad result has had consequences. The company’s board of directors has been completely replaced as the most responsible for an economic result that is not at all in line with the position that this company holds in the market. However, analysts say that the problem does not reside in the photorriving business; JSR’s bad economic results have been triggered by their subsidiary specialized in The development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical and medical diagnosis products. The new directive dome plans to sell a part of this division to the Japanese company Tokuyama Corp. for approximately 570 million dollars with the purpose of cleaning up its accounts. We will see what happens, but what does not admit discussion is that JSR has a leading role in Japan ambitions linked to the semiconductor industry. More information | Reuters In Xataka | Japan has taken the carrier to dominate the chips industry. Prepare a 325,000 million dollar plan

TSMC is going to upload the price of its chips wafers 10% in 2025. And users will not be able to dodge this blow

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Just a week ago we told you that Nvidia has decided Increase the price of your GPU for games between 5 and 10%. And that of his chips to artificial intelligence (AI) up to 15%. This decision is the result of The multiple crises to which the company led by Jensen Huang and a business strategy that seeks to protect its benefits in a moment of uncertainty. But first of all it has been promoted by the increase in TSMC prices. This Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer, The Major on the Planethas increased the price of its most advanced nodes and its customers will spread this increase throughout the entire production, distribution and sale chain. Nvidia is one of them, but it is important that we do not overlook that in the TSMC client portfolio they also break through Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom or Intel, among many other companies. The TSMC leadership position protects its competitiveness from price increases It is a fact: TSMC is going to raise the price of your wafers by 10% for 2025. This information It has been circulating for several weeks by the Asian media specialized in the semiconductor industry, and at the situation of current uncertainty that has triggered the commercial warfth that Eeuu and China is perfectly credible. It is not yet clear what nodes will be affected by the climb, but it is reasonable to assume that little by little it will reach all TSMC avant -garde integration technologies. Presumably the US government will activate in July, after a 90 -day suspension, its tariffs on imported chips This context invites us to ask ourselves what has caused CC Wei and the directive dome of this company to make this decision, and in all likelihood there is no single reason. However, and from this we can be safe, TSMC, NVIDIA and most of the companies directly involved in the semiconductor industry foresee that The US government will activate in Julyafter a 90 -day suspension, Your tariffs on imported semiconductors. As we have just seen, many of the TSMC clients are US companies. This Taiwanese company is developing Your production infrastructure Within the US with the purpose of protecting their administration tariff business, but for the moment almost all its integrated avant -garde circuits leave their Taiwan plants. And future tariffs will increase them when entering the US. In addition, make chips in the country led by Donald Trump It’s more expensive than doing it in Taiwanso it would be unrealistic to assume that The price of wafers TSMC will moderate when its new Arizona plant begins to manufacture large circuits integrated in the N4 node (5 Nm) on a large scale. Image | TSMC More information | Phone Arena In Xataka | TSMC is willing to take control of Intel chips factories. What you don’t want is to do it alone

China is about to have the ability to make 5 Nm chips, although it faces a difficult solution problem

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SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp), the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer has been working on the development of Your own 5 nm photolithography. In early February 2024 the newspaper Financial Times He said he had access to two experts in the integrated circuit industry who defended that this company was finalizing the refinement of their semiconductor manufacturing processes in their machines deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP). Its purpose was to have the necessary technology to make 5 Nm chips massively before the end of 2024, although it did not succeed. If its 5 Nm chips had already been successful in this project, the first Huawei devices or any other SMIC client equipped with this type of integrated circuits would have even seen the market. Be that as it seems, now, this technology is ready. The challenge facing SMIC is the performance by wafer According to Dr. Kiman expert in the manufacture of integrated circuits who has worked in Samsung and who currently investigates for TSMC in the US, SMIC is about to start the production of 5 Nm chips. It is perfectly credible because, as we have just seen, we know with certainty that this company has been working on this technology for several years. And, in addition, Dr. Kim is a reliable source. However, this expert has pointed out something crucial that we should not overlook: the performance per wafer that SMIC has currently achieved in its 5 Nm nodes is less than 30%. An incipient integration technology usually moves in the orbit of 50% performance per wafer When semiconductor manufacturers produce a chip wafer, some of those nuclei do not work properly. It is normal. When they launch a new lithographic node, their performance by wafer usually has a margin of broad improvement, but little by little, as engineers refine their integration processes, This parameter improves. A mature lithography can deliver to integrated circuit manufacturers a very high performance, but an incipient technology usually moves in the orbit of 50% performance, so only half of the chips produced work correctly. The problem is that for an integration technology to be profitable from an economic point of view, its performance by wafer has to be At least 70%. And, as we have just seen, Dr. Kim argues that the SMIC 5 NM node is below 30%. It is objectively a very poor performance, but we know what this low figure explains: the technique used by this manufacturer to produce these semiconductors. It is known as Multiple patterningand SMIC has used it for more than a year and a half to make 7 NM chips for Huawei and other customers. This strategy consists in transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It works, but is responsible for wafer performance is clearly improvable. SMIC engineers have been forced to resort to Multiple patterning because The US and Netherlands sanctions They prevent Asml from selling their extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment to their Chinese customers, which are the ideal to make chips of 7 nm or less. With the UVP machines that SMIC has, it will be very difficult for wafer performance to be optimal, so in all 5 Nm integrated circuits they will be scarce and expensive. The definitive solution to this problem for SMIC, Huawei and the other Chinese companies that are dedicated to semiconductors inevitably goes through developing their own UVE lithography teams. They are in it. Image | SMIC More information | Dr. Kim In Xataka | The US has declared the total war on Huawei: he does not want him to sell his chips for the most advanced outside of China

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